Hello Families,
I’m
Ms. Swift, an intern student at The University of Michigan-Dearborn. I’m
working collaboratively with Mrs. Stone and Ms. Jones in your children’s
classroom for the fall 2014 semester. Our goal is for each of our students to
experience a rich educational environment. This school year, our classroom’s
big idea is movement and motion. Through traditional lesson
plans and inquiry work, the children have been exploring, sound through
movement. Children, were given the opportunity to use musical instruments to
explore sound, while simultaneously using imagery (children viewed live images
of themselves on a television screen), as a result some children have connected
vision to movement.
Next,
I began to wonder, “What does sound in motion look like?” During, a
finger-painting exploration, I observed a student, represent “sound in motion”.
To illustrate, she, places both of her hands in the finger paint, then she
moves both hands across the paper, while using a swaying motion. She sings,
“The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish all through the town.” The
children appear to be very interested in sound, movement and motion, therefore
we will continue to explore the concept of “sound in motion”.
Furthermore,
most of what children learn and do requires coordination of multiple systems
that mediate production of speech, efficient limb and whole body movements, as
well as dexterous movement of hand and fingers. As early childhood teachers, we
measure cognitive development in young children, through their behavior and
actions, specifically their motor output and verbal out. Considering, our
students age group, it is appropriate practice to engage children’s learning
through sensorimotor activities. The developmentally appropriate activities we
are using in our classroom, will aid in identifying your child’s current level
of sensorimotor abilities, so further development of those types of skills
(fine motor, vision, hearing, gross motor and cognition) can be sought after
through the planning and implementation of future lessons.
In
our classroom, we have posted a communication board. Please feel free to share
your thoughts, ideas or any observations you’ve witnessed your child partake in
at home, as it relates to movement and motion. In the future, I
look forward to discussing your thoughts about your child’s interests, in
reference to our classroom’s big idea.
Thank you,
Ms. Nicole Swift
Hello Families,
I just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce
myself and the work I have been doing in the classroom. My name is Kelsey and I
am interning this semester with Catie and Julianna. I am pleased to be working
with in the classroom with Catie and Julianna and all of the children. I have
enjoyed my time in the classroom thus far. I have been working with the
children on movement and motion objects. We are focusing on how we can impact
the movement of objects with our own bodies and also making those movements
visible to us. This seems to be of interest to all of the children within the
classroom as it is a main idea that Catie and Julianna are also exploring with
the children. I have been working on exploring visible motion with children by
using mediums like paint and crayons to track their movements. Recently we
explored the movements of cars by placing paint on the tires of the cars.
Throughout the semester I will be working with the children on tracking their
movements and making them visible. You
will be able to see the work and explorations we have been doing at Curriculum
Night which is November 12th after school.
I look forward to an
amazing semester and seeing everyone at Curriculum Night.
Thank you,
Kelsey Hadyniak
